Demo on Saturday! Family Mosaic to make staff homeless and jobless

The housing association Family Mosaic are planning to make four residential support workers in Hackney homeless and jobless next month.

The staff, employed by the large housing association currently support people with learning difficulties and their accommodation is attached to their employment. But now Family Mosaic say they will cut this service, meaning the support workers will becomes homeless and jobless.

And there are concerns about Family Mosaic’s ability to provide the level of support needed by service users once staff have been dismissed. Cutting these jobs will be a disaster for the vulnerable people the staff support, who will lose the regular face to face contact which their residential support workers provide. This will put an extra strain on generic and mental health services.

The housing association are blaming their decision on cuts to funding by Hackney Council. But campaigners have pointed out that the housing association has £53 million in the bank in reserves which they should be using to find a better outcome for staff and service users.

Campaigners are demanding that the evictions be called off and Family Mosaic enter into meaningful negotiation with staff about the future of their employment. Family Mosaic have so far proved unwilling to negotiate with the staff about their employment or housing status.

Protestors will confront Family Mosaic this Saturday at the First Step Homes Show in Westminster where they the housing association are exhibiting. Dressed as wealthy housing association CEOs and brandishing a large cheque for £53 million pounds, protestors will explain to delegates and the public why they’re taking action against Family Mosaic.

People effected are being supported by Unite the union and Digs, the Hackney renters group.

“We would have hoped Family Mosaic would take more care to examine alternatives before booting people out in this current economic climate” said Unite Regional Officer Adam Lambert.

Digs say:
“Family Mosaic are behaving like the worse kind of callous, money-grabbing private landlord. It’s sad to see such a large housing association abandon its integrity and concern for the well-being of its service users and staff. Family Mosaic claim to be dedicated to their customers. They claim to have the ‘courage to do the right thing‘. They need to remind themselves of such values and call off these evictions immediately. They need to get round the table with their staff and try and figure out a solution that benefits their clients instead of just the bottom line of their balance sheet.”